Posted by Brent on Dec 30, 2008 in
Investing,
Personal Finance Happy New Year everybody!
If you have one or more children, it’s a great opportunity to get college savings started right now. You’re probably sitting alone in your office because everyone else took the week off. Chances are you’re not getting much work done with that kind of peer pressure. So take a few minutes to open a 529 savings account.
In Ohio, you can do it online in very little time. The only information you need is:
- Social security numbers for you and your kid(s)
- Your driver’s license number (or state ID)
- Your kid(s) birthday(s)
- Your checking account number (from the bottom of a check)
If you have all of that handy, it is literally a 10 minute task to fill out an online enrollment.
Q. Why should I do this?
A. Do you think College is getting any cheaper? Do it now. You want Billy or Suzie to be a success, don’t you? You’d like them to get their degree without taking out a third mortgage, right? The Chicago Tribune recently estimated that college expenses will increase 5% per year, for a projected cost of over $100K for public colleges and over $200K for private colleges in 15 years.
Q. Sure, but why should I do it NOW?
A. You know the arguments against procrastination. The most familiar is that the sooner you start saving, the sooner the proceeds of your savings begin to compound. With just an 8% return, $100 a month becomes $48,000 in 18 years.
Market Recoveries
Q. But that will work just as well next year, right?
A. There’s a very special reason for starting right now. The stock market took a huge nosedive a couple of months ago (maybe you heard about it?). But every time the market tanks, it comes back stronger than ever, and a huge chunk of that recovery takes place in the first year after the crash.
Q. What do I know about the stock market? I’ve never bought a single stock, so how does a market recovery help me?
A. Any good 529 plan (and Ohio’s looks like a pretty good one) will put your money into a mutual fund of your choosing. Mutual funds invest in the stock market for you. A professional manager, or a professionally designed model determine what stocks are bought and sold by the fund. You never need to understand anything about it. And because it’s a bunch of people’s money, the fund can buy a bunch of stocks. That’s a lot less risky because if one company goes belly-up, it’s only a tiny fraction of your whole investment.
Q. The 529 offers a whole list of choices. Which fund should I choose?
A. At this moment in market history, it would be difficult to pick a loser. In Ohio, you can choose between Putnam or Vanguard funds. Morningstar, which makes its living rating mutual funds, rates Vanguard a little better than Putnam.
Q. Can’t I do this next month when I’m not as sleepy from all the pie I’ve eaten?
A. Sure. There’s never a bad time to start saving. But if you want to take up to $2,000 off this year’s taxable income on your Ohio taxes (other states may vary), you should do it today or tomorrow.
Ohio’s College Advantange 529 Savings Plan
Other States’ 529 Plans
Tags: College Savings, Investing, Personal Finance
Posted by Brent on Dec 22, 2008 in
Investing,
Marketing OK, it’s cheating, but if you were to stumble upon this page at Yahoo Finance, you might mistake me for a real reporter or financial analyst.
I work for Zacks Investment Research in the internet marketing department. Fortunately, nobody relies on my stock analysis. We have highly trained professionals for that. I just sell our products online. And run a stock picking community site where anyone can write analysis.
But when Apple pulled out of Macworld, our chief editor actually did ask me to write up a short piece on it. You can see it here on this blog, but it also was linked off the front page of Zacks for a day in the “Special Coverage” section.
Zacks also syndicates content out to Yahoo Finance. It’s a great source of new members to us, because somebody who reads content that we produce and finds it useful is much more likely to click one of the three or four links that lead to one of our products or to our free newsletter registration.
The side benefit for me in this case is that it almost looks like I’m a writer for Yahoo Finance. That’s my byline just a few pixels below their logo.
Tags: AAPL, Apple, Investing, Marketing, Syndication
Posted by Brent on Dec 17, 2008 in
Apple,
Investing Apple caused a stir yesterday when the company made two announcements concerning the upcoming Macworld Expo.
First, Apple said it has no plans to continue its participation at the conference following this year. Secondly, they said the keynote address will be delivered by Senior VP Philip Schiller, and not CEO Steve Jobs, whose annual appearance at the event has become legendary.
The move has ignited a firestorm of speculation about Jobs’ future with Apple. Rumors about Jobs’ health have run rampant since he appeared earlier this year looking less-than-healthy.
Whether or not Jobs’ health is compromised, it seems plausible that the company is slowly rolling out a succession plan. In October, the company held a press event in Cupertino. During that presentation, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook took the stage to introduce the new Apple notebook lines.
Cook was notably dressed in Jobs’ trademark jeans and black shirt.
Putting Schiller center-stage may be the continuation of an attempt by the company to showcase the capable, competent staff who back up the charismatic Jobs. Apple’s share price is uncomfortably tied to shareholders assumptions about Jobs, his health and his continuance in leadership. Soothing that panic reflex would be a commendable goal.
Speaking of volatility, Macworld itself has been a frequent catalyst for kneejerk reactions in Apple’s share price. Each year, shareholders speculate about the products which will or will not be introduced at the conference, and whether or not they meet the expectations of the Apple faithful.
Message discipline is one of Apple’s key strengths. They have been enormously successful at controlling the release of information to maximize the effect the media has on their success. They have increasingly hosted their own events on their own schedule to promote new product introductions and improvements. Discontinuing the one yearly event where they have the least control is entirely consistent with their communications strategy.
John Siracusa at ArsTechnica has an interesting take on how this move- turning your back on an event packed with brand-loyal disciples, is a sort of boldness that we’ve seen time and again from Apple.
Tags: AAPL, Apple, Investing, Mac, Macintosh, Macworld, Marketing Strategy, Trade Shows
